Foucault and Heterotopian Art
Today I publish:
‘Foucault and Heterotopian Art’ pdf
I have decided to publish this article through the web-site to allow incorporation of varoius direct links to on-line museum galleries and other resources and for ease of access for those who do not belong to an academic institution. Feedback always welcome!
Abstract
Foucault’s reflections on a variety of visual art by Velázquez, Magritte, Manet, Gérard Fromanger, Paul Rebeyrolle and Duane Michals have provoked growing critical interest. Most considerations of Foucault’s thoughts on paintings and photographs tend to make substantial links with the main trajectories of his methods and projects. Although such an approach provides valuable insights, there is a tendency to advance an analysis that identifies Foucault’s intentional and developmental journey, tracing the story of the inevitable fate of ‘representational’ art. In contrast, this article contends that Foucault provides a series of heterogeneous reflections which puncture or cut through his work rather than bind it together. I argue that Foucault’s diverse and mostly marginal studies explore a miscellany of visual art as forms of heterotopia, exhilarating spaces to experience and inhabit that challenge customary ways of conceiving the world.

Peter
9 November 2015